Everything Changes
by farmermum
Summary: When you come to a new place to begin a new life sometimes the change can be more than you bargined for. For Flora that was certainly so.
1. Chapter 1

**Everything changes**

Yesterday you weren't there.

Yesterday there was only me.

Yesterday there was merely the idea of you but suddenly, this morning, you're here and now everything has changed.

I woke this morning and opened my eyes to the rosy autumn sunshine. A shaft of sunlight like a lighthouse beam shone through a gap in the mottled green curtains. Tiny dust motes dance in the beam turned into sparkling flecks of gold, so close that I can almost reach out and grasp them. The light strokes your cheek as you lie there and your beauty takes my breath away. I lean over, to watch more closely, and marvel at the texture of your skin, like a rain washed pearl. Even in sleep there's a tiny smile curving your lips, sweet and red as a wild mountain strawberry. Great fans of black lashes shadow your cheeks and cover eyes as blue as the summer skies. Hesitantly I hover a hand over your golden curls that shimmer with life. From here I can count tiny gleams of red and wonder where you got them from. Love, so strong, so overwhelming that I find it hard to breathe it rends me speechless and fills my eyes with tears.

What the hell am I going to do now! All my plans are blown away with this moment, everything that I'd planned so carefully is now just so much nonsense. There's no way I can leave you, I was an idiot to ever imagine that I could. Still, it's amazing just how easily you can fool yourself when you have to.

You stir in your sleep, a gentle sigh, signalling your awakening and I hurry to take you in my arms before anyone else can become aware. Your weight in my arms is surprisingly heavy, yet one more astonishing revelation that I hadn't been prepared for. During the pregnancy I'd never been large; a godsend when I'd had to hide you from everyone, and it had been a complete surprise to Vesta and myself just how large a baby you were. Quickly, before you can cry, I put you to my breast and feel you suckle. Yet another thing I felt would be so alien that now feels so right. I know when Vesta hears you she'll be straight in here and this will be over, Just for now I need to be alone, alone with you, to try to understand this maelstrom of emotion and sort out what has happened.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Flora**

Not that I'm not grateful to Vesta, if it hadn't been for her I don't know what I'd have done. She took me in when my world collapsed around me and demanded nothing in return.

I'd come to the valley after answering an advert in a city newspaper for a research assistant cum man Friday, a lonely soul with nowhere to call home and I'd found a place that welcomed me in. Up to that point my life had been rootless. I'd gone from life with a nanny to prep school; to boarding school and then on to university. Somewhere along the line my parents had died, not that it mattered much to me as I had mattered very little to them. It did leave me wealthy but it also left me adrift in life. Coming to the valley had been another attempt to find some permanence in my life. Carter and I had got on fine, not in any romantic way, but we worked well together. He did tend to take advantage some times of my good nature but the friendliness of everyone more than made up for it. I was doing O.K. I could even see myself tentatively putting down roots here and then along came Jack.

Right away I knew that this was different, dangerous, over whelming but I couldn't stop myself. He took over the rundown farm and worked to make a new life there. He made an impact with all the valley inhabitants, especially the women. He started coming up to the dig to earn some much-needed money. Carter was glad of the help and had no problems with him taking finds that we weren't interested in and selling them to the travelling salesman, Van. I soon found myself drawn to him, longing every day to see him. He made me feel so happy, desired and cherished. He would talk with me and bring me little presents he'd picked out for me. There was magic about his smile that haunted my dreams and with each passing day I fell deeper in love with him. Carter warned me to be more careful, that maybe Jack wasn't all he seemed to be and that to give my heart so readily was folly but I wouldn't listen. By then we were lovers and it was too late. The hours I spent in his arms were heaven, our love making so tender and thrilling. I didn't want to look too deeply into the future. Jack made me believe there was no other future than one together, that there was no other for him but me and I knew there could never be any one else for me.

Then all too soon it was over. Jack came less and less to the dig. He began to make excuses not to be alone with me. From Carter I found out that he had another love, that Celia was to be his wife not me. It seemed an alliance with another large farm in the area and a quiet, virgin bride was more to his taste. My life was a disaster, not only had he abandoned me but I was pregnant. Jack was cold to me and I didn't know why. It was almost as if he hated me he treated me with so much contempt and I didn't know what I had done wrong. I was so devastated it was months before I realised I was expecting a child. I couldn't believe it; I didn't want to believe it. This couldn't be happening to me. I couldn't have a child, not now, I didn't have a home, I didn't have anyone to love me and, most of all, I had no idea how to be a mother. Like many a girl before me I tried to ignore it and pretend it wasn't happening. Every day I told myself I should leave but I couldn't. Even if Jack no longer loved me I still loved him and I couldn't bear not to be near him. Each time I saw him it broke my heart, especially when he was with Celia. I knew, from Carter, that he and Celia were more of a couple than ever; she seemed to be at Jack's farm practically full time now. Eventually I couldn't take any more and fortunately for me Nami found me in time and took me to Vesta. She took me in and handed me a lifeline. She nursed me back to health and told me I could stay there as long as I needed. She was like the mother I had never had. I don't know how Celia felt about me being there, she never said and I never asked. I can't read Celia, there's deep and closed about her that I find puzzling.

Vesta insisted I tell Jack about the child and I gave in and wrote him a letter. We waited but there was no reply. Carter came to see me and, to gave him his due he never said I told you so, to tell me how sorry he was for my plight and how he felt somehow to blame. I told him this was nonsense, I was a grown woman, but he wouldn't be dissuaded. He told me that he had found me a temporary job on another site, with a friend of his, far away from the valley. I could go there and return when I felt strong enough. It was perfect, there I could make a new start and get over Jack and my broken dreams. He assured me my place with him would remain open and I could come back. There was just one problem, the child. There was no way I could take it with me. Still, that was no problem for me I hated the child I was carrying. No matter where I went this dreadful symbol of all I'd lost would chain me to the past and stop me from moving on. I cried for days on end just wishing it were all over and the child were gone. Finally, I persuaded Vesta how serious I was about giving this child away. She tried all she could to change my mind but when she realised that she couldn't she begged me to give her the baby. She promised me she would make the child her own, she would love it and care for it and, maybe, someday in the future I'd feel differently about things and the child would still be here. I agreed. Vowing I would never change my mind.

So my future was arranged. Vesta would care for the child and I would go to the new dig, turn my back on this part of my life forever. Yesterday that was how it was going to be but today there's no place in my life for such a future. Now I have to re-think everything. I don't know how yet but I have to make a different plan. I promise, my darling, that whatever happens I'll make things right. I thought that in coming to the valley I'd made a place for myself but that's gone now For you I have to make another, maybe not the perfect one I wanted but I'll find that new place for the two of us. No matter what, Rosalind, I'll never leave you, I'll make things right. One day, when you're older, I'll tell you what happened to me. Maybe I'll write it down and you can open it and read Flora's story and judge for yourself what happened.


	3. Chapter 3

**Celia**

**My grandfather always told me never to show my true face to others,**

**My grandmother taught me that you could achieve more with honey than vinegar,**

**My aunt told me to never give a sucker an even break,**

**My godfather told me always to have a Plan B.**

**And I'm a very good girl and I always listen to my elders.**

Vesta is a kind soul and my godmother to boot so she didn't so she didn't ask too many questions when my father asked her to take me in. I'd arrived in the Valley two years ago, seething with resentment and determined to find my place in life.

Vesta and my mother had been friends in their youth and stayed so even after Leta married my father, Gregory Somerland, and moved to a large farm on the other side of the peninsula. Vesta was delighted to be my godmother and travelled to our farm for the christening. Sadly, it was just five years later that she travelled there again for my mother's funeral. A fever snatched her away from us and left my father and I alone. At first there were housekeepers and governesses but, gradually, I took until I was left running the domestic side of life at Orchard Farm. It suited me to my own master and, over the years, I saw off several ambitious girlfriends. There was Marlene, then Genifer and then Darleen, to name just a few. Some of them were difficult but none were a match for me. Daddy was a little upset at the time but I knew he was grateful to me eventually, they were just not right for him. Anyway Orchard farm was mine and no-one was going to push me out of the way. Or so I thought.

Then there was Fiona! Daddy was besotted with her; a curvy bottle blonde in four-inch stilettos with a fluffy, squeaky laugh and, what I thought was a fluffy, squeaky brain. Was I ever wrong! I tried every trick in my repertoire but Fiona was wise to them all. Just five years older than me but with a steel trap of a mind she was unfazed. Then she played her trump card and I was lost. Daddy wanted a son and Fiona was pregnant. That was when she gave him the choice and I was on my way to Forget me not Valley.

From the fist day Vesta's hungry maternal heart was attracted by my plight and she took me under her wing. She was overwhelmed by how much I looked like my mother. As she helped me unpack and settle in she couldn't get over how much my manner, my appearance even my speech reminded her of Leta. It wasn't surprising since I'd spent the two weeks between being told of my enforced vacation and the day I left perfecting my performance. I'd selected clothes that resembled those my mother wore in photos taken before her marriage and I'd had my hair cut to enhance the resemblance. Perfecting her shy, sweet personality was a little more difficult but not impossible.

Soon everyone in the Valley knew me. I was pretty, sweet sad little Celia, innocent and in need of protection. Once that was in place I could lay my plans. There was no way I was going to return to Orchard farm to come second to Fiona and her stupid brat. No, I was going to make a place for myself here, which would show both of them. It soon became clear which men were available in the area and which were of no use to me. Gustafa was nice but he had nothing and that wasn't going to make the future I wanted, the same could be said of Cody. That left me with Rock, who would inherit the Inn, Marlin and his share of Vesta's farm and Carter. With his background there had to money there somewhere. That was before Marty came to take up the abandoned farm by the woodland path. He attracted me right away. On that first day, when Takakura introduced him around the Valley I felt an instant attraction. He was easy natured, very good looking as well as good fun. He had plans for the farm and I just knew he would do well. His gentle optimism was balm to my soul after listening to Marlin moan all the time. It also amused me to see Marlin bristle with jealousy as Marty presented me with a bouquet of wild flowers. Marty would come to the farm to buy seeds and he'd spend time talking to me and walking with me. Now I stopped any mild flirtation I'd started with Rock or Carter and decided to devote all my time to my little farmer. I knew Marty was busy trying to get the farm off the ground, using every means at his disposal to make money but in my desire to help I took my eye off the ball. I knew he wasn't more than mildly interested in Muffy or Nami, the two other eligible girls in the Valley and I considered Lumina far too young. I was so careful to maintain my gentle image while encouraging what I thought was his courtship that I didn't notice what was happening between him and Flora until it was too late. I was so used to thinking of her and Carter in tandem I forgot that she was also single.

That day I'd gone to the farm with an apple pie I'd baked for Marty but Takakura told me that Marty was at the dig. Thinking he'd appreciate a quiet break indulging in a picnic by the stream with his sweetheart that I set off for the dig to surprise him. However, I was the one who got the surprise! There was no mistaking the indulgent break he and Fiona were having. They were so intent on their lovemaking they never even knew I was there. The sight of their naked bodies in the dappled shade of the waterfall destroyed my innocent hopes and hardened my heart. I knew then that if I wanted Marty I was going to have to fight for him, that much was obvious to me and it wasn't going to be easy. Still, nothing worth having was ever easy. No, this wasn't over.


End file.
